License to Discriminate

In an earlier post, I blogged about a California Court of Appeals decision that held that a religious high school was not a “business establishment” and, therefore, not subject to the state’s nondiscrimination law. In effect, this allowed the high school to expel two 16-year-old girls suspected of having a lesbian relationship, notwithstanding a legal prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by public accommodations. With one justice disagreeing, the California Supreme Court earlier this week denied a petition to review this case and also denied a request to depublish the Court of Appeals’ decision.

In commenting on the decision, the attorney for the students said “he feared the decision would give a ‘green light’ for private schools to discriminate not just against gay students, but against children in other legally protected classes, such as race, as long as religious beliefs were offered as a justification.”